English
Italiano 
Español The merry holidays of Giorgio Tino
When it's Yesmoke, the only manufacturer of cigarettes in Italy and the only cigarette maker that pays taxes in Italy, calling, Giorgio Tino, director of the Italian State Monopolies, famous for his illustrious parentage with the Antonio Maccanico family, has never been free to speak on the phone.
Giorgio Tino, General Manager of Italy's “Monopoli dello Stato”
But when it's Rocco Terribilini, the manager of Philip Morris calling, he is always there and says to him "You are a real friend".
And when Francesco Valli, the number one of British American Tobacco calls, Giorgio Tino, being a serious person, and fair (for "par condicio), accepts the foreign multinational's invitation and happily sends his daughter to the Formula One Grand Prix in Barcelona.
The girl told her dad that she prefers to go on holiday with Philip Morris because the treatment is better; with BAT the last time, she didn't enjoy herself. Luckily, everything turns out perfectly: «Papà, è bellissimo. È a cinque stelle, nun poi capì» (Daddy, it's great. It's all five star, you can't imagine), says the maiden.
These are some of the remarks taken from some telephone conversations of Giorgio Tino; the wire tappings were ordered by the italian magistrate Henry John Woodcock. Tino is the general manager of the Italian Monopoli dello Stato and a well-known brownnoser of the cigarette-manufacturing cartel.
We are trying to fathom a transversal underbrush of the governments of centre-left and centre-right, of politicians, managers, directors and organisations, whose decisions allow foreign companies to take wealth out of our country and hand it over to foreign companies, with the apparent guarantee of impunity.
The General Manager of the State Monopoly is one of those appointments that do not make news in the daily papers, but this person has immense power and controls sums of money with up to nine zeroes. On Giorgio Tino's desk, pass the papers on the sale of tobacco and cigarettes in Italy, as well as the concessions for slot machines and video poker.
An Italian Paradox
What is the Italian Monopolio? Today, after the sale of the ETI (Ente Nazionale Tabacchi) to British American Tobacco, there remains in Italy only part of the production of MS cigarettes and this, too, is scheduled to be transferred out of Italy. Even our famous "nazionali" brand is now entirely manufactured abroad. We are moving towards an Italian market where we will be selling only cigarettes manufactured outside of Italy, by foreign companies that do not pay taxes in Italy.
The typically Italian paradox is that the Italian State Monopoly exists today, in effect, to safeguard the interests of foreign companies, and damaging the Italian State and people. One of the dreams of the Monopolio is to take away the license of Yesmoke, Big Tobacco's awkward Italian competitor, and unprecedented, Yesmoke is an Italian company that pays taxes and provides employment in Italy.
And for all he is doing for Big Tobacco, the manager of the Monopolio is also asking for a pay raise "I am stopped at 250 thousand euro, and I have more seniority than anyone else", says Tino to Vincenzo Fortunato, at the time head of the cabinet of Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti.
A Career as a brownnoser
Let's take a look at this seamy personage: born in Avellino in 1947, he was appointed to the top of the agency by center-right Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti and reconfirmed a year later by the center-left government in spite of the fact that he had been investigated by the magistrates of Potenza in the context of the inquiry on Vittorio Emanuele.
A degree in Law (as his official curriculum reports), he entered the financial administration. But it was in 1990, when his relative Antonio Maccanico was minister that Tino was appointed by the Council of Ministers to the position of general manager.
A brilliant career, which in 1994 brought him to the direction of a "pilot project" to set up an integrated system to handle all the activities of the Finance Ministry.
In 1997, when (it is certainly a coincidence) Antonio Maccanico was minister of the Post and Telecommunications for Romano Prodi's center-left government, Tino was appointed vice general manager of Customs and of indirect taxation.
Three years later, Tino became the general personnel manager, and then secretary of the Finance Ministry. In that period, remember the gossipmongers, his illustrious relative was a minister of the center-left governments of Massimo D'Alema and Giuliano Amato.
Besides occupying the position of number one of the Monopoli, Tino was also a member of the board of directors of Logistica, a leading company in the field of tobacco distribution and today at the center of attention of Philip Morris.
The brilliant manager is highly appreciated also by the center-right: Finance Minister Tremonti, in July 2002, appointed him to lead the Monopoli di Stato. And here the first rumors began to circulate on the operations of Tino, who boasts of friends on the left and on the right, who was appointed by Berlusconi's government and confirmed by Prodi's. He is very close to Giovanni Sernicola, head of the particular secretariat, right arm of Vice-Minister Vincenzo Visco and, many people say, in line as a candidate for his chair.
Conclusion
In China, Giorgio Tino would probably be condemned to death and his relatives would be sent off to labor camps. In Italy this elite group of scoundrels and parasites do whatever they choose with public money, giving away to their foreign friends billions of euro, fruit of the labor of Italian workers; they don't seem to worry at all about a number of years in prison that hangs over their heads like the sword of Damocles.
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